“We found Seolhwa.”

Clang—

Cheongun stared at the teacup shattered at his feet with a startled face.

“Ha....”

Cheongun wiped at the corners of his eyes.

That made about six teacups he’d broken.

The Chief Steward elder would have words for him again.

“I’ll hurry and clean this up. Just a moment—”

“Leave it.”

“But—”

“Did you not hear me? This is important. Sit first.”

“....”

Following Namgoong Mucheon’s words, Cheongun left the cup and sat in the chair.

Cheongun’s breathing was faintly rough.

From that rough breath, Namgoong Mucheon could feel his tension.

‘He must have suffered terribly in his heart.’

A son who had wandered the world for over ten years to find the child.

He met his daughter in dramatic fashion, only for her to vanish again—how could he not be frantic.

No doubt his insides had already rotted away.

Even so, unlike before, he was holding his ground as Clan Lord, and that alone was worthy of praise.

“You... found Seolhwa.”

“Yes. But there’s a problem.”

“A... problem.”

Namgoong Mucheon met his son’s eyes, which trembled with dread.

It sat ill with him to deliver such news to a child already bearing more than enough.

But what had to be said had to be said at once.

“Seolhwa has lost all her memories.”

“Her memories... you mean....”

“She remembers neither you nor me, nor anything of the main house, the Martial Alliance, the Sado Union—she does not remember even herself.”

Ha.

A sigh slipped out of Cheongun before he could clamp his lips.

His expression twisted with pain.

But, cruelly, Namgoong Mucheon was not yet finished.

“The Immortal Physician examined her.”

“!”

“She says something akin to an Interdiction is upon Seolhwa.”

“What....”

“But only with regard to memories of the main house.”

“!”

Namgoong Mucheon relayed in detail what he had heard from Jegal Myeong.

If one brought up the Namgoong Clan, her Blood Channels would roil; unless she recalled on her own, there was no way to fix it.

No one could tell her that she was the Namgoong clan’s young lady, and so she could not return to the Namgoong Clan.

The Namgoong people could not even hastily go to her.

“Ah... how....”

How could such a thing happen to that child alone.

“How could this be only for our Seolhwa....”

Ah... ahhh....

Seolhwa... Seolhwa...!

Cheongun clutched his head.

She had said she would come home.

Her last word was that she would surely return, so please wait.

So he waited.

On the day Seolhwa returned, he wanted to show, just as the child wished, a fine Clan Lord—steady and unshakable.

He did not wish to crumble again as a father.

He did not want to show a shameful sight.

And yet, how.

‘How can news be delivered like this.... ’

Even if she returned, it was not a true return, and even if he ached to see her, he could not meet her.

How could this be anything but cruel news.

“Trust Seolhwa and wait.”

Namgoong Mucheon looked upon his son, who was stifling low groans, with pity.

A Clan Lord must not collapse.

The Clan Lord’s soundness is the clan’s soundness.

He knew better than anyone the suffocation of not being allowed to wail to one’s heart’s content.

So he spoke with an even firmer voice.

“Seolhwa will surely keep her promise.”

She vowed she would return without fail; surely she is a child who will return.

“I too will do all I can to find a way. Let us wait a little longer.”

Watching Cheongun’s back rise and fall in quiet tremors, Namgoong Mucheon reached out and gently patted it.

****

Two days had passed since Seolhwa returned to the Sado Union.

Jegal Myeong had gone back to the Martial Alliance, and the Immortal Physician also left, saying there were herbs she had to look for.

The Hao Sect Lord and Ryeong took turns keeping Seolhwa’s side.

The Union Lord’s return remained a secret, but whenever she had time, the Hao Sect Lord told her about the Sado Union.

She reported in full the war between the Sado Union and the Flesh Curtain that had broken out while Seolhwa was away, the process, and the present state.

In the meantime, Seolhwa would now and then think of the Namgoong Clan.

At first, merely thinking of it brought a headache that crashed down as if her skull would split, but as she grew used to it, the pain eased.

After that, Seolhwa, out of habit, would murmur the word “Namgoong.”

“What kind of place is it, really.”

Seolhwa, lying face-down on the table, tapped the snake’s head—tok, tok—and spoke.

“The place I must return to. My clan.”

What was I there?

What kind of relationship could be so painful that merely recalling it hurt like this?

“....”

Seolhwa laid a hand over her chest.

Apart from the headache, whenever she thought of “Namgoong,” for some reason her chest ached as if something cinched tight around it.

That made her all the more curious.

The more her memories rejected “Namgoong,”

the more she wondered what kind of place it was that her unconscious resisted so fiercely.

However, after the day she heard from Jegal Myeong about the Namgoong Clan, when she asked Ryeong or the Hao Sect Lord, they would not tell her.

They only strove to avoid the topic.

Knock. Knock.

A rapping sounded at the door, and presently someone entered.

It was Ryeong.

“Union Lord. A visitor has come.”

“A visitor?”

Wasn’t it supposed to be a secret that she was here?

“He calls himself Yu Gang. Before you lost your memories, you two were....”

“?”

“...close friends. He also leads the Martial Alliance’s Patrol Unit.”

Someone from the Martial Alliance again.

Come to think of it, Jegal Myeong was also from the Martial Alliance.

The Martial Alliance was the coalition of the Righteous Path, the opposite of the Sado Union.

‘Close friends with the Patrol Unit Lord of the Martial Alliance....’

“May I show him in?”

Seolhwa nodded.

Ryeong left the room, and soon after, she felt someone come in.

Step. Step.

A heavy tread, as if he were hesitating.

Under the tied-back curtain that cut the room in two, a man’s legs in martial uniform appeared first.

Seolhwa’s gaze naturally went beyond the curtain.

Next after the legs came the man’s hand gripping a mask, his solid torso, his chest, and his shoulders.

When at last the man’s face slipped past the curtain into view, Seolhwa could not take her eyes off him.

“....”

“....”

Their eyes met and locked in the air.

The man wore a face as if he were about to cry.

Everything he was holding down—hard, hard—showed through beyond his expression.

He was squeezing the mask so hard the veins on the backs of his hands stood up flushed and ridged.

As they held each other’s gaze, the man slowly came toward Seolhwa.

He went down on one knee before Seolhwa, who sat in a chair, and gently enclosed her hand in his.

His hand was hot and rough.

The cautious touch, as if holding tofu that would crumble at the slightest pressure, tickled a little.

He lifted his head and met her eyes.

“It’s been a while, Seolhwa.”

That gaze was so hot it stole her breath, and Seolhwa unconsciously swallowed.

“They say we... were close friends.”

“Yeah.”

Seolhwa faintly knit her brows.

Is that how close friends are, normally?

This felt... something a bit... more....

“Were we... something special?”

“Yeah.”

The man’s answer did not waver.

For no reason, her mouth felt parched and dry.

“...How much?”

“I...”

“....”

“I like you very much.”

The low, calm voice sounded like he was coughing something up. It felt like something he had held back for a very long time finally burst.

After steadying her breath, Seolhwa asked:

“...And me?”

Did I like this man?

But [N O V E L I G H T] instead of answering, he gave a bitter smile.

What did that mean.

She waited in silence. After a long stretch of quiet, he slowly shook his head.

“...I don’t know.”

I see.

Even so, Seolhwa could tell.

Before losing her memories, she had likely liked this man.

Otherwise there was no way to explain this strange feeling.

When she looked into this man’s eyes, for some reason her chest tingled and she couldn’t quite breathe right.

This was a feeling she had not felt with anyone she’d met after losing her memories.

****

Yu Gang stayed by Seolhwa’s side for a long time before leaving.

He mainly told her what had happened between the two of them before she lost her memories, and how he had searched for her after she vanished.

Before he left, he asked if he might hold her once.

Seolhwa readily nodded, and Yu Gang hugged her tight, as if her body might break, and then departed.

With a face full of reluctance, as if he didn’t want to go.

Tok. Tok.

After Yu Gang left, Seolhwa fell into thought.

The more people she met, the less she knew what kind of person she had been.

She had come this far to find her memories, and yet the memories she needed to find felt ever more distant.

The Sado Union and the Martial Alliance.

Black and white.

Evil and good.

And... Namgoong.

‘Namgoong.’

Tok. Tok.

The sound of her fingers tapping the table rang at a steady pace through the room, where the light had slanted toward dusk.

After a moment, someone knocked.

“Union Lord, we’re coming in.”

Ryeong and the Hao Sect Lord entered.

Ryeong set something down before Seolhwa.

Seolhwa knit her brows.

“...Candied hawthorn?”

Wasn’t it the same food a child in the village had given her?

“Yes. It’s something you used to like.”

“I did?”

She had liked candied hawthorn?

Just then—

‘Hah-ha, does it taste that good?’

‘Eat more. There’s as much as you want.’

‘Keh-heh! Your uncle made that!’

‘Here. A present, kiddo.’

Voices she didn’t recognize sprang up one after another.

Propping her chin, Seolhwa straightened without realizing it.

‘Seolhwa. Look at your father.’

‘Are you hurt anywhere?’

‘You broomstick of a wretch!’

‘Young lady!’

‘Young lady...!’

What memories were these.

Whose... voices were these.

Seolhwa clutched at her chest.

A feeling so achingly dear welled up that her heart began to hurt.

“Union Lord! Are you all right?”

“Union Lord?”

Ryeong and the Hao Sect Lord shouted, their faces gone pale, but in Seolhwa’s ears only the unknown voices buzzed and murmured.

“Union Lord!”

At Ryeong’s cry, Seolhwa, who had been listening in a daze, lifted her gaze and looked at Ryeong and the Hao Sect Lord.

A single line of tears ran down from her eyes.

“I have to go. To the Namgoong Clan.”